not necessarily a 9, but definitely someone that has scoring ability, a long distance shooter would be nice
I think Pep subbed off Xavi because he is not 100% fit yet, we have seen that since he came back. He is probably not ready to play 90 minutes yet.
Tough loss. Madrid didn't really play that much different than the past Classicos. They were pinned for most of the game and had a lot of difficulty possessing the ball or even creating a quick chance on the counter after their scrappy goal. I honestly think they've had better games against us lately (offensively speaking). The difference is that Crissy didn't choke on the one real chance he had. And once again, we didn't take the 2 good chances we created (Xavi and Tello) much like in the game against Chelsea. I don't see the criticism about Messi. Nobody else is creating great goal scoring chances and nobody is finishing them off. He can't do it all ... specially against the good teams. He created the best chance in the game but unfortunately Xavi didn't put it away. Nobody created anything for him. I also don't see the criticism on Pep and the formation. I would have gone with Tello too. Cuenca has been crap. Fabs has been crap. Pique and Masc is a toss up IMO. I think he had to gamble and save Alexis for the Chelsea game. As we've all noted here, we are missing Villa and Abidal. There is no question about that. The wing play was really bad. Tello and Alves couldn't beat their defenders. I think that was a major problem. We typically get good service from the wings which in turn opens up the middle. I just hope we can put 2 more good games together and take the CL. And honestly it would really help to get a few breaks go our way. Can't stand seeing other teams score against while parking the bus and creating minimal scoring chances. The last thing .... classy reaction from the Camp Nou applauding the team at the end of the game. This team has given them so much to celebrate and they deserve it even if they don't end up winning.
Its perfectly clear what he's saying - if you are pro barca then the photo shows offsides OTOH if you are pro Madrid it shows them level.
Not really I still think we were a lot better . I remember the CdR where they won the same way. Playing extremely defensively. I really think due to Messi being exhausted is what didn't gave us the extra edge to break that defense wall. He walked all game and thus our offense was nonexistent. Also a couple of tactical mistakes by Pep putting Tello. He plays well in open games where there are spaces so he can exploit with his speed but in this type of games Sanches or even Cuenca would had been ideal, they are a lot better dribblers Also I dunno about you guys but Thiago had a good performance, the only criticism i would had towards him is he ball hogs the ball too much and ends up losing it. About the 1st goal, Valdes messed up I dunno why he's so insecure in making decisions when trying to catch an air ball or just punch it wide. Everytime he gets out of his area I cringe.
I wonder if Mou gonna comment the "advantages" we have with the schedules and more days of resting between the games. He will surely have something to say about Barca in the midweek press conference for the CL game, because there is no press conference with him not saying anything about Barcelona even though he isn't facing us.
the gap has closed RM walked into Barcelona with a 4 point gap, that does not happen if that gap hasn't closed we are also not as precise as we used to be, so its a matter of us not being as good and them being better Thiago to me looks like Xavi's natural replacement, he is a bit different (tends to hold on a bit to much to the ball) but I believe as he matures he will know when to pass and when not to
Thiago was good. He will be a crack. That pass for Tello... my God. Anyways, time to move on. We do the cup double, it's 4 more trophies for Barca this season than for them.
Argue what you want about the goal being offsides or not, but the fact remains you guys had almost 75% possession to draw or even win. This goal came early and just like the Chelsea game, you lost, with a lot of possession. Good game. See you in the Final.
I thought it was a very entertaining match. At least the groundskeeper didn't turn on the sprinklers!
Our midfielders lack speed and losing the ball in midfield should not be an option for us. But today we were loosing too many balls in midfield. On top of that we played with 3 players in defence and 2 of them were slower than Di Maria, Ozil and Ronaldo, I am just happy we didn't concede more goals today. I think Pep waited too long to bring on Fabregas, Sanchez and Pedro. These players should been subbed in around 60 mins. Messi looks disinterested at the moment and I am not liking it a bit. He stands still and only moves when he have the ball on his feet, I will appreciate more if he could move his lazy ass to make some space for his team mates. If he makes that extra effort to move across the field, other players will get even more room as atleast 2 players will be following him. It sucks to lose after making the habit of winning but it had to end some day. But I am not liking Ronaldo scoring and Messi not scoring in Clasicos. Xavi has been very poor recently. He just plays safe ball these days and don't do his 360 degree turn either, may be he is injured. Iniesta is making wrong decisions and Busquets had one of his worst game today. I just hope this game hasn't given more confidence to LPB players if we eventually meet in the CL final. If we win against Chelsea, I want Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Sanchez, Fabregas, Puyol, Alves to not play any single Liga match.
It was a tough game. You guys don't like to lose the ball that much eh? Anyways, it was entertaining and good luck on Tuesday.
I haven't read the thread, so maybe I am repeating points made by others... This team just looks tired and has lost the magic. This is a bad spell -- it has come at an unfortunate time, but I don't think you can take much from this loss aside from what we knew already that the finishing has not been there recently. Madrid sat back and seemed a bit tired too, but they weren't tested as often as in frequent matches and Barca couldn't wear them down. They took their chances and deserved to win the game.
Unfortunately we had people come over right at halftime so I was only able to watch the 2nd half in bits and pieces. I saw the Sanchez goal but didn't see the Ronaldo one, was it a result of a counter or a porous 3 man back line? A couple of years ago the knock on Pep was that he didn't know when to sub and Barca didn't have a plan B. I gotta criticize him on his tactics and line-up today as Tello shouldn't have started and Thiago sucked ass in the 1st half. I know they're both young players so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on them. We need to find another plan B because when teams line-up against us like RM/Chelsea we can't score worth a damn. They just quadruple team Messi and nobody else can score. It doesn't help that Villa is hurt, Sanchez has been hurt, and Pedro is off form. We do need to get a proper #9 this summer. RM were built for the long haul. We've had too many injuries that haven't been a problem in recent years or we didn't let them affect us but they are this year. Villa and Abidal are sorely missed. RM were eventually going to win. It was going to happen. As great as Barca are even this team can't win every game all the time. I hope this galvanizes the guys for Chelsea and we throw everything at them because if we play like this they will win. Our guys looked tired and were slower to the ball than the RM players. I hope Xavi is ok because he just doesn't look right. The best way to get over this loss is to beat Chelsea and hope RM beat Bayern so we can get revenge for this loss in Munich. Losing La Liga sucks but RM really want the CL trophy and beating them for it would be the ulitmate slap in their face. I can't remember the last time a Pep team lost 2 big matches back-to-back. It's time to show the world this team isn't done and a heart of a champions beats within their breasts.
What did I miss? Seriously, I was pissed I had to present at a conference exactly at game time. Now I've watched the highlights and read the last 15 pages of this thread, I don't know what to say. I'm just glad the folks here are not the hysterical type. The good news is we have a big game on Tuesday to channel the sting of this defeat into. Tots units fem força